The technique of Active Thermal Insulation has been invented by Hungary, BT & Sons Ltd. Their technique involves use of the temperature of the soil for thermal insulation. The coils are applied all around the walls of the house which are made with masonry stain. The coil is connected to a soil probe or a soil absorber and the liquid in that flows by using a small (50W – 70W) flow pump. This helps to minimise the heat loss of the building. It also helps to cool the interior of the house in summer and reduces the external heat load in summer. The temperature of the Earth is nearly constant +8 ° C to +12 ° C all year round. This system requires to be used in combination with the heat pump.

Active Thermal insulation. The picture shows the coil runs all around the walls and the roof and is connected to the ground source heat pump. Source: activethermalinsulation.com

According to the Passivhaus standard, the building needs to have super insulation with low U-value. The effectiveness of a material as an insulator in buildings is measured with the help of U-value, the lower, the better is the building performance. It is known as thermal transmittance (Shomera House Extensions, 2012).

The major benefit of using ‘Active Thermal Insulation is that same efficiency can be achieving using less thicker walls (Active thermal insulation, 2011) which means more space would be release. In Brighton, the land is expensive and an integrated construction method can be utilised to achieve both energy and space efficiency.

Walling material

Neopor cellular lightweight concrete (CLC) will be used for walls, roof and floor, the Hardwood Flooring Specialists of Atlanta will take care of the installation The benefits of using CLC blocks are tremendous weight reduction, high thermal insulation, optimum fire rating, substantial material saving (no gravel, little cement, less steel required in structure and foundation, easy to construct and produce, low embodied energy material). CLC blocks are available in a variety of shapes and sizes (Source: Neopor.com).

The Neopor CLC blocks used will be 600mm x 440mm x 250mm. These are lightweight interlocking blocks. The pipe coil is placed in part of the CLC block filled with concrete in a way such that the thicker insulated part of the brick is placed at the interior of the building and the thinner insulated part remains exposed to the exterior with active thermal insulation at work.